Lost eyes and shattered hearts
by typhoidcandy
Summary: Before being sent off to the Capitol to fight in the Hunger Games, Peeta is visited by an old friend.


**A/N: **I posted this on my Ao3 page, but I wanted to post it on here too. Enjoy the Underlark feels!

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Peeta's eyes go wide when his next guest enters the room. "Madge?" He inquires softly.

Madge Undersee almost laughs at his expression. Under different circumstances she might have. It would seem her presence—the mayor's daughter—would come as a shock to both of District Twelve's tributes. First Katniss, who resembled a fish out of water when she gave her the Mockingjay pin. And now Peeta. Though Peeta looks nothing like a fish and she has no pin for him. He just looked surprised to see her and scared for his future to come.

Honestly, Madge isn't all that shocked that he wasn't expecting her to be one of his guests. It's been so long since they actually talked to each other. Been so long since their friendship grew so distant.

"Hello, Peeta." She finally speaks timidly.

They stare at each other for a moment. It feels like they're seeing each other again for the very first time in years. Which was quite untrue. They saw each other a lot in school and occasionally around town. But that was it, they only saw each other. They haven't really spoken to each other since they were ten years old—when everything began to change.

"Did you see Katniss?" He asks tearing his eyes away from her and he stares at the floor.

"Yes." She replies simply. She doesn't tell him about the pin or the meaning of it. What would be the point? The friendship was gone—why try rekindling it now when she had so little time and he wouldn't be coming back?

"Why are you here, Madge?" He finally asks still not looking at her.

"I wanted to see you." She says honestly. She wanted to see the boy that was once her best friend one more time.

"One last time?" He suggests and there is an actual mirth in his tone. It hurts Madge to hear him like that. He already gave up on his life.

"Don't be silly. You'll come back." She says just for the sake of it. It may be cruel, but maybe she wasn't ready to let go of him yet. Maybe she never stopped believing that he was her best friend. She wants to think that he's just going on a trip and he'll come back home—that he's not going to a foreign place to fight in an arena and die.

Peeta looks at her again and his eyes are so lost. Madge almost wishes she could take back what she said.

Time is ticking quickly before the Peacekeepers come to take her away and Peeta needs to ask her something that's been gnawing at him since he was a kid. "We used to be best friends, Madge. What… What happened to us?" He asks her… and he's asking the same question to himself. His eyes are so lost and sad when he looks at her that Madge has to look away. She can't bare it.

Madge wishes she had more time with him—more time to explain everything. To explain that everything changed when she began to understand what was happening in her own home and when things in his own home became too vicious for the young boy he was. That they were children thrown into circumstances that they'd never be ready for even if they had prepared themselves. It was the fact that they were unable to speak about their problems with each other that caused the drift in their friendship. But the Peacekeepers were coming to escort her and take Peeta away from her forever.

She sighs softly and her eyes start to burn as the reality of situation begins to sink in. "We grew up too young, Peeta."

As soon as the words left her lips the Peacekeepers came into the room. They take her arms gently to escort her out.

"Bye, Madge." Peeta says in a small voice.

And Madge breaks down right then when the Peacekeepers almost have her out the door. Peeta sounded so much like the child she once knew. He best friend. She wished more than anything now that they could go back—back to being ignorant children. Back to when she didn't understand that her mother was dying slowly and painfully, and when his own mother didn't beat him. When she wasn't so scared and he wasn't so lost.

She wretches herself from the Peacekeeper's grasp and she throws herself into Peeta's unsuspecting arms. Tears leak from her eyes and onto Peeta's clean shirt.

"Don't give up, Peeta. Fight!" She whispers before giving hi a kiss on the cheek, and she wonders if the wetness on his cheeks were from her tears or if they were his own.

She pulls back and allows the Peacekeeper's grab her again, a little roughly this time. Peeta's eyes are wide as they all but drag her out of the room.

Madge gave Katniss her aunt's Mockingjay pin, but she likes to think that she gave Peeta hope. Maybe friendships never really die.


End file.
